Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.0903m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #9.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.423
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We use a numerical gravity wave model to investigate the propagation and the dissipation of atmospheric waves in Saturn's upper atmosphere and their potential impact on its ionosphere. As waves travel through the upper atmosphere they are exposed to a number of dissipative processes like molecular viscosity, molecular thermal conduction, eddy diffusion, ion drag and radiative damping. Based on the wave dissipation rates we constrain the spectral characteristics of the waves that can propagate at ionospheric heights. At high altitudes waves in the neutral atmosphere are coupled with ionospheric plasma through ion-neutral collisions. They can modify the local electron/ion distribution, disturb the local ion chemistry and result in observable signatures in the electron density profile. We discuss the wave induced effects on the ionosphere in view of the electron density profiles obtained from the Pioneers, the Voyagers and the Cassini radio experiments.
This work is supported by NASA under grant NNX07AF29G issued through the Planetary Atmospheres program.
Barrow Daniel
Drossart Pierre
Matcheva Katia
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